Does it prohibit the screens any smaller?

AFP

AFP

Monday, 16 October, 2017 03:45

UPDATE
Monday, 16 October, 2017 03:53

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CANNES | AT a time when the screens are multiplying and where the television or the tablet are sometimes used as a babysitter to overwhelmed parents, should we prohibit the screens any smaller ? This issue has caused a debate among the participants at Mipjunior, the world market of programs for children organized this weekend in Cannes.

In the United States, the american Association of pediatrics (APA) has advised officially to prohibit the screens before the age of one year and a half.

For its part, the French gendarme of the audiovisual sector, the CSA, has decided in 2008 to ban tv programs for less than three years ago, when chains anglo-saxon dedicated to babies have tried to install in France.

“We have brought together health professionals who have all said that it did not make sense: from zero to three years of age, a baby needs to interact with the world around him, his toys, his parents and his brothers or sisters, and not be passive,” recalls AFP Carole Bienaimé-Besse, a member of the quorum of the CSA, to which it is a”public health problem”.

Since then, the CSA makes regular campaigns to remind parents this advice, which also applies to computers, tablets and smartphones, which many children are familiar with from a very young age, in particular via the numerous channels Youtubes that offer of cartoons accessible 24h/24.

“Autism virtual”

“In the world, there is an awareness of what causes an addiction to screens, including in children, with in the case of consumption in the extreme, a development of autistic disorder, it is called the’autism virtual” to”, is concerned that Ms. Bienaimé-Besse.

Prohibit the screens, “personally, I think it is very good”, believes his side Christophe Erbes, media consultant with extensive experience in Europe in the tv and youth programs, and also author of books for children.

“Any part of the business is geared towards children 0 to 3 years, including a string of israeli (BabyTV, which was acquired by the american group Fox and distributed today in over a hundred countries, ED), applications…”, he said to the AFP.

But according to him, “in France, unlike Germany, England or Scandinavia, the policy is not really interested in the cultural universe of the children and their relationship with the media.”

The French government has made the cultural education, including the media, a priority, “from kindergarten through high school,” as recalled this week by the minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen.

Some professionals doubt, however, of the effectiveness of the calls to completely ban screens, given their ubiquity, and advocate instead for use of “moderate”.

“That is admirable, but it is probably unrealistic. Today, the digital is everywhere,” says Alice Webb, director of children’s programmes at the BBC.

It advocates a “balanced diet”, in which children watch “moderation” of specific programs.

On the string for the “6 and under” group, for a british audience, Cbeebies, “we do programs for children from the age of two, but we know that the children are still more small the look, so we must take it into account when we design our programming,” she said.

“‘t control everything”

Another debate burning, the use of the internet and social networks, which are theoretically prohibited for under 13 years of age, which does not prevent toddlers from accessing it.

“It is impossible to say that we can control everything that is online, it is like a wave that we will never manage to overcome,” says Alice Webb.

The BBC is looking, she says to “help the children to distinguish what they should watch or not, react when they see content that they did not want to see, and to develop their critical sense to understand what is real or not.”

The CSA, itself, would regulate the digital content. This requires the reform of the audiovisual regulation in France.

“It comes less from channels because they had understood the need to protect the public, but it is necessary to broaden our action. I do not find it absurd that Facebook or Twitter, which will create content, be regulated in the same way as the others, as much as it is the consumption of the young people as a priority”, argues Carole Bienaimé-Besse.